The Resy Guide to Celebrating Lunar New Year in New York

Manhattan

This stunner of a spot in Midtown has a whole weekend of Lunar New Year celebrations in store beginning on Friday, Feb. 9 and lasting until Sunday, Feb. 11. On Lunar New Year’s eve, Feb. 9, they’re hosting three performances of traditional lion dancers (red envelopes included). And on Feb. 9 and 10, alongside their usual à la carte menu, they’ll also have dinner specials like yusheng, roasted duck breast wraps, and whole steamed fish supreme soy. On Sunday, Feb. 11, they’re debuting dim sum brunch from noon to 2:30 p.m.

Bonus: And throughout the weekend, if you really want to splurge, you can purchase a limited-edition dragon decanter ($350 each) that is used for the restaurant’s large-format Year of the Green Dragon punch service.

Set inside a beautiful space lined with ink-stained murals (courtesy of artist Qiu Anxiong), Atlas Kitchen is an Upper West Side gem that plays with the regional cuisines of Hunan and beyond. Must-order dishes include the seafood egg custard and spicy pig feet, but do order with your eyes — there’s a reason why the hanging sliced pork belly is on every table. For New Year’s, do consider pre-ordering a whole steamed bass or lobster (prepared with garlic and scallion or with salted egg yolk).

No Tết is complete without plenty of food, and that’s exactly what you’ll find inside Bánh’s Tết celebration box ($199). It’s got 16 different items inside, ranging from crispy spring rolls and sticky rice cakes to boiled chicken and dried squid. The boxes are available for pre-order until Feb. 8 and can be picked up from Feb. 9 to 11.

Should you decide to dine at Bánh to celebrate the new year, you’ll definitely want to consider an order of their signature bánh chưng, a traditional steamed rice cake with pork belly and mung bean; there’s a vegetarian version with mushrooms, too.

Walk-ins only.

From Feb. 9 to 17, excluding Feb. 14 and 15, BondST Hudson Yards is offering a special 10-course menu for $165 per person that blends Chinese and Japanese cooking traditions. That means hot oil seared lobster carpaccio with chives, ginger, and soy; crispy whole hamachi collar nanban with pickled vegetables; and dry-aged duck with duck confit cabbage rolls and kalamansi honey gastrique.

You likely haven’t had Korean American food quite like this before: At C as in Charlie, everything on the menu here combines Korean and Southern culinary traditions in fun, creative ways.

And for Lunar New Year, they’re adding a few special menu items from Feb. 8 to 10. In lieu of their usual crab drop soup, you’ll find traditional Korean tteokguk, or new year’s soup. “In Korean culture, consuming a bowl of this soup symbolizes aging one more year,” explains director of operations David JoonWoo Yun. “Younger kids sometimes believe they will age two years by having two bowls, so Steve [JaeWoo Choi, finance director] used to eat an extra bowl of the soup every year to try to catch up in age to me and Eric [JaeHo Choi, chef].”

For dessert, they’re serving up a peach cobbler-inspired rice cake dessert with sweet tea filling on the inside (pictured above), in collaboration with Rice Blossoms. Each dessert comes with a small envelope filled with $1 inside and each night there will also be a special $100 gift inside one of the envelopes for one lucky diner.

Dining at Café China makes you feel like you’re starring in your own Wong Kar-wai film, and the beautiful vintage setting is equally matched by the exquisite cuisine where Sichuan classics shine. This new location is even grander in size, but the food and drink are just as excellent as you might remember, making it an ideal stop for any new year celebration.

Celebrate the Year of the Dragon by dining on Shanghainese classics at this stunning restaurant on Saint Mark’s Place. Feast on wine-soaked crab, crispy eel in sweet-and-sour sauce, and sea urchin egg tofu stew, among other thrilling delicacies that are hard to find elsewhere.

From Feb. 5 to 11, Chinese Tuxedo is offering a special Lunar New Year banquet menu ($98 per person) for both lunch and dinner featuring dishes like long life duck noodles, braised black pepper oxtail buns, shrimp and scallop dumplings, and steamed branzino with XO sauce, to name a few. On Feb. 10 and 11, specifically, the restaurant will also be open for lunch and only the Lunar New Year banquet will be offered for lunch and dinner service on both days.

Bonus: You can also order a special signature cocktail at Chinese Tuxedo and its sibling restaurants, The Tyger, South Soho Bar, and Peachy’s, with a portion of proceeds going to the nonprofit Shaolin Temple USA. The drink is available from Feb. 5 to 18.

If you’d like to bookend your celebrations with a celebratory beverage, do consider stopping here and ordering yourself one of the city’s most creative cocktails (we’re partial to the Japanese Cold Noodle). While you’re there, why not pair it with one of DCP’s juicy Taiwanese-style fried chicken sandwiches, too? Chickens are thought to bring you good luck and prosperity, too.

P.S. Here are some tips on how to get in.

This new spot from Silver Apricot’s Emmeline Zhao delves into Chinese American cuisine with an eye toward the lower Atlantic coast, stretching from West Virginia to Florida, with dishes like a Shanghainese smoked fish salad and corn jalapeño bolo bao to hot fried skate and turnip tots with lapcheong mayo. For the new year, they’re debuting a few savory and sweet specials, as well as some Lunar New Year cocktails, too. Expect to see a large-format Duck Pekin’ that comes with sides of sticky rice, duck neck sausage, longevity mac and cheese, duck confit hoppin’ john, hot honey duck liver mousse, and cornbread. And save room for a niangao yam pie for two for dessert.

Another OG for Cantonese cuisine in Chinatown that’s been open since 1968, Hop Kee is another can’t-miss spot that you should definitely consider for a Lunar New Year feast (or any feast any day of the year). If you go, don’t sleep on the signature Cantonese-style crabs with black bean sauce (a dish created by owner Peter Lee’s father years ago), the snails, anything that’s salt-and-pepper, the pan-fried flounder, and the spring chicken.

Walk-ins only.

Noodles represent a long life and are a must for any Lunar New Year meal. Your one-way ticket to noodle heaven lies at this stunning slurp shop in the East Village, where chef Chao Wang cures homesickness with the delightful mifen rice noodles of his hometown. From Jan. 30 to Feb. 12, they’re also offering a special “beer duck” ($33) entree featuring duck braised in a complex sauce of chile peppers, ginger, and Tsingtao beer.

Chinatown’s palatial fine dining destination that introduced cold sesame noodles to New York in the late ‘60’s is a must, all year round, not only for those famous noodles but also for their Beijing duck, snow pea sprouts dumplings, and steamed whole fish with ginger and scallion.

The family-owned restaurant that’s become New York’s ultimate melting pot for the past 50 years is still one of the best places in the city to ring in the Lunar New Year. Stop by for their famous dim sum, or indulge in a proper banquet-style feast; you can’t go wrong.

Call (212) 964-5256 to make a reservation.

If there were a Tết package to splurge on this year, we’d campaign for the one being offered by Mắm. It comes with housemade giò thủ (Vietnamese headcheese), chả lụa bì (Vietnamese pork ham), lạp xưởng (sausage), hành chua (fermented shallots), khô bò mắc khén (beef jerky with a special ‘mắc khén’ spice from Northwest Vietnam, nem chua bò (fermented beef), and a surprise sweet for $150 (feeds two to three). Packages will be available for pick up on Feb. 8 and 9 and can be ordered here.

They’re also selling the Vietnamese headcheese, giò thủ, for $20, too. It’s available for pickup on Feb. 8 and 9 and can be ordered here.

Mắm takes online reservations and also accepts walk-ins.

Another old-school Chinatown spot known for its wonton soup, Mee Sum Café is the perfect place to order yourself some dumplings, barbecue pork, and comforting bowls of hot congee. Don’t overlook the Toisan-style sticky rice, wrapped in lotus leaves.

On Feb. 18, Welcome to Chinatown and Boba Gays Comedy are hosting a special comedy brunch with seven different dishes, ranging from Hong Kong milk toast and salted chicken to preserved egg congee that you won’t want to miss. Get your tickets here.

Walk-ins only. 

Vietnamese imperial cuisine is the centerpiece of the elaborate New Year’s meal being prepared by Monsieur Vo chef Jimmy Ly and food stylist Thu Buser on Feb. 12 and 13. The five-course meal ($118 per person) includes bánh Tét ngũ sắc (pan-fried sticky rice cake with pork and mung bean); gỏi bò tiến vua (grilled spiced beef salad); and cơm sen cung dình (salted egg fried rice with lotus seed, mushrooms, abalone, lap xuong, long beans.

New York’s oldest dim sum parlor, located in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown, is always a good idea. If you go, do be sure to order as much dim sum as you can (and seriously consider bringing some home with you, too).

This newly opened purveyor of Korean Chinese food, from the same team behind New Wonjo, has something for everyone seeking to celebrate the new year, from Peking duck and truffle siu mai to shrimp fried rice. Whatever you do, don’t sleep on the jajangmyeon — a quintessential Korean Chinese dish of noodles drenched in a savory black bean sauce that also represents longevity — a must for any new year’s celebration.

On Feb. 10, both locations of Philippe by Philippe Chow (Upper East Side and Meatpacking) are hosting live dragon dance performances that you can enjoy while you feast on their Beijing-style classics, like chicken with walnuts and sweet red bean sauce, scallion pancakes, and Peking duck (or chicken). The dancers perform at 7:30 p.m. at the downtown location and at 9 p.m. on the Upper East Side that night.

A superb Chinese restaurant powered by a Din Tai Fung vet (that’s Taiwan’s soup dumpling empire for you) and an award-winning sommelier make Pinch Chinese one of the best spots in the city for xialongbao and so much more. Do order their excellent soup dumplings and spring rolls for wealth, and the whole wind sand chicken (it’s really something else).

On Friday, Jan. 2, Potluck Club’s Zhan Chen and Saigon Social’s Helen Nguyen are teaming up for a special Lunar New Year dinner at Platform by JBF, the private dining space located inside Pier 57 run by the James Beard Foundation. Expect banh mi crostini and radish cakes with lapcheong jam, coconut juice-braised pork belly and duck confit rice rolls.

Book your tickets here. Tickets range from $160 to $200 per person.

The embodiment of a distinctly Cantonese American revival, Chinatown’s Potluck Club celebrates Cantonese and American culinary traditions to delicious effect: salt-and-pepper chicken with scallion biscuits, anyone? Better yet, they’re open for weekend brunch, too.

And on Tuesday, Feb. 27, they’re hosting a very special collaborative feat with none other than Flushing’s favorite purveyor of wonton mein, Maxi’s Noodle, as part of Welcome to Chinatown’s Lunar New Year series of events. This six-course feast is best enjoyed with friends, so round up your crew and book a table for four, six, or seven here.

A critically acclaimed LES staple for Vietnamese American fare that’s become a community pillar — that’s Helen Nguyen’s Saigon Social. If you go, do be sure to order the banh beo, steamed rice cakes topped with shrimp and fried pork fat, and if you’re with a group, go for the whole fried fish for prosperity, too.

Saigon Social is also offering a Lunar New Year home kit that serves two to three people and includes a variety of dishes for celebrating Tết: savory sticky rice cakes, fried crab and pork rolls, braised pork belly and egg, and pandan honeycomb cake included. The kit is priced at $125 and is available for pick up on Feb. 8 and 9. Orders have to be placed by 9 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 5.

Simone Tong’s New American Chinese restaurant in the West Village is ringing in the new year with menu specials that are meant to bring you luck and prosperity: housemade five-spice duck ham; pan-fried longevity noodles; lion’s head meatball; and mandarin leaf ice cream. On Lunar New Year, every table will receive a red envelope that contains a special surprise, ranging from a complimentary beverage or dish to a $50 gift card for a future visit.

Songkran, or Thai New Year, is celebrated in April, but over at Somtum Der in the East Village, they’re eager to celebrate both the restaurant’s 10th anniversary and Lunar New Year with New Yorkers with their latest special: towers of their signature Isan-style food that are perfect for dining with a crew. Through Feb. 11, they’re offering two different towers that serve up to four easily: a smaller muan lai lek ($79) composed of appetizers like larb tuna, chicken wings, grilled pork, and sticky rice, among other dishes; and a larger muan lai yai ($149) with all your favorites, from grilled calamari and grilled chicken to grilled pork neck, papaya salad, stir-fried noodles, and pork sausage. The muan lai platters must be booked ahead of time here.

What happens when three good friends from all over Thailand open up a restaurant? You get Soothr, or a dazzling taste of regional Thai specialties not often seen in Manhattan. Look no further than the koong karee, a dish pulled from Bangkok’s Chinatown that’s a cult favorite in the making. Trust us: This is one to add to the city’s pantheon of great Thai dining.

For Lunar New Year, Soothr is offering a whole menu of specials from Feb. 1 to 11 that include a take on that famed koong karee, this time with lobster, for $48. There’s also fish maw soup ($28) with goji berries, crab meat, and cilantro; pan-fried Hong Kong noodles with chicken, lapcheong, and crab ($28); and steamed jujube cake with a chrysanthemum honey filling ($16).

One of the city’s best food halls that’s dedicated to showcasing the cuisines of Southeast Asia is hosting a very special Lunar New Year feast from Feb. 8 to 12 where you’ll want to dine with a crew of up to six. The feast ($238 in total), featuring dishes from five different vendors from Urban Hawker, is offered for lunch (noon and 2 p.m.) and dinner (6 and 8 p.m.), and must be booked 48 hours in advance. You’ll be well rewarded for making plans ahead though; the meal includes Singaporean Yu-Sheng salad; a mala prosperity platter with chicken; longevity noodles with lobster; crispy dried scallop fried rice; spring rolls; and shrimp skewers. Make your reservations here.

Chef Ron Yan pulls from his childhood and family heritage to bring forth a crowdpleasing menu of Chinese dishes that pairs perfectly with Parcelle’s epic list of natural-leaning wines. Whatever you do, don’t sleep on the marinated cucumber and wood-ear mushroom, sticky rice, and the typhoon shelter-style fried chicken.

From Feb. 9 to 24, groups of six to 12 people can book a Year of the Dragon family-style feast ($100 per person) in Tolo’s private dining space that has jiaozi dumplings, lion’s head meatballs, and longevity noodles, among other dishes. The highlight of the meal is poon choi, a communal dish showcasing seafood (lobster, scallops and prawns), tofu, and fresh vegetables. Seatings for the family-style feast are offered at 6 or 8:30 p.m. nightly, with two bookings available nightly. You can also pre-order a poon choi, which serves up to four people, for $150 per order, as well. And do know that Parcelle has a special Year of the Dragon wine list with wines from previous Dragon years, stretching back all the way to 1964.

Over at The Tyger, Chinese Tuxedo’s sibling restaurant where Southeast Asian culinary traditions shine, they’re offering a dinner special for the new year from Feb. 7 to 11. Pair it with the signature Lunar New Year cocktail and know that a portion of your order will go toward supporting the local Chinatown community via Shaolin Temple USA.

On Feb. 20, Nom Wah chefs Carlos Duarte and Doron Wong are taking over the kitchen at Virginia’s for a very special four-course Peking duck-themed dinner ($68 per person). Expect to see dishes like chicken and scallion croquettes with black vinegar and sesame; hellfire dumplings with spicy chile; and a Peking duck sandwich with a hoisin aioli, caramelized onions, and pickled chiles and herbs. Get your tickets here.

Wo Hop is an unapologetic bastion of Chinese American cuisine, a beacon to the late-night crowd, and a culinary landmark in its own right. This newer extension of the OG basement-level location (Wo Hop Next Door is located on the ground level of a no-nonsense enclave at 15 Mott Street) is still as old-school Cantonese as you can get. Don’t sleep on the pan-fried flounder or salt-and-pepper squid.

Walk-ins only.

This beloved BYOB spot is ideal for celebrating with a crew, whether you decide to feast on the house specialties like the iconic New York No. 1 wonton soup or the famous garlic aromatic cripsy chicken, or if you decide to splurge on the whole suckling pig or king crab (both require pre-ordering).

Call (212) 477-1112 to make a reservation. 

If you’re looking to ring in the Year of the Dragon with some elegant fine dining, look no further than the newly opened Yingtao. Here, they’re serving up a special 10-course tasting menu ($165 per person) from Feb. 9 to 17 that’ll feature dishes like kampachi with prickly ash pear and buttermilk and wagyu with sauce au poivre and yu choy. Whatever you do, don’t overlook the dumplings filled with Berkshire pork, caraflex cabbage, and a superior stock — they’re and ode to owner Bolun Yao’s grandmother, for whom he named the restaurant and who always made dumplings for Lunar New Year.

Brooklyn

Shanghainese and Sichuanese culinary traditions converge at this Williamsburg spot where you won’t want to miss out on ordering the Dongpo braised pork belly or green peppercorn fish stew.

This Williamsburg sibling of Manhattan’s celebrated Café China is ideal for a crowd; you’ll likely want to order everything from the Sichuanese menu, including delicious poached wontons in chile sauce to a lovely tea-smoked duck.

Chef Calvin Eng’s heartfelt ode to Cantonese American cuisine features dishes you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the city: Think wun tun ravioli with a citrus butter sauce and parm, or a showstopping whole deboned fish composed of fish cake.

Breeze is where the best of two great culinary traditions — Sichuanese and Shanghainese — combine to delicious effect. That means delicate crab soup dumplings, siu with salted duck egg yolk, and hearty Sichuan beef stew.

Bushwick’s beloved Vietnamese American restaurant, known for its confit duck necks and Dad’s fried rice with Vietnamese mortadella, is always a good idea, and their dac biet dinners ($88 per person), served family style, are an especially enjoyable way to ring in the new year.

Pastry cook Kayla Wong is making a special assortment of Lunar New Year pastries ($26), available for pick up on the weekends of Feb.2 and Feb. 9 that includes mandarin lime bars with almond shortbread; charsiu pork danishes with ginger scallion oil; a scallion chile crisp breakfast focaccia; and black sesame coconut buns. Orders must be placed by Wednesday at 1 p.m. for pickup the following Friday to Sunday between noon and 2 p.m.

More info on how to place your order here (look for “pastries to go.”)

You simply can’t go wrong with whatever you decide to order at this Sichuan specialist, a must for anyone who adores dishes like numbingly hot dry pepper chicken wings, slick and spicy dan dan noodles, and cumin-crusted lamb. This spacious location, inside DeKalb Market, also has a full bar where you can indulge in refreshing cocktails like a gingery Chengdu Mule topped with Sichuan peppercorns, so we do recommend toasting to the New Year if you so choose.

On Feb. 6, Han Dynasty is hosting a special Lunar New Year tasting where, for $88 per ticket, you can taste 15 different courses, with some special off-the-menu dishes, too. Book your tickets here.

One of our favorite spots for pop-ups is hosting a special Lunar New Year pop-up with none other than Susan Kim of Doshi for a menu that’ll feature mandu tteokguk inspired by the ones her mom made for her during Seollal (Korean New Year), as well as bossam and bindaetteok (mung bean pancake). Sool sips and makgeolli cocktails will also be flowing.

If you’re not able to make it for the pop-up, you can sign up for Hana Makgeolli’s subscription service, Sool Club, through Jan. 26, for the LNY release. It includes a bottle of Hana Makgeolli’s latest batch of Forbidden Takju, a sedimented black rice brew that’s got notes of blackberry and raspberry.

If hotpot is your thing, do consider this all-you-can-eat option in Brooklyn Chinatown. Pro tip: Load up on sauces at the sauce station.

Call (718) 431-0026 for reservations.

From Feb. 12 to 18 Leland is offering a special Lunar New Year menu inspired by owner/partner Randi Lee and chef/partner Delfin Jaranilla’s respective Chinese and Filipino roots and childhood memories: Think chicken feet, hand-pulled noodles, chicken rice porridge, and baked pork buns. Expect housemade fermented black bean sauce, sourced from ingredients from upstate, combined with stir-fried clams and house-cured Chinese sausage, as well as steamed bao, almond cookies, and sesame balls, plus mai tais and Scorpion Bowl cocktails. There’s also a whole roast duck special with scallion crepes and cranberry sauce, too, so come ready to eat. On Feb. 13 for dinner service, they’re also celebrating with a mahjong parlor in the wine cellar.

One of the city’s best purveyors of Sichuan-style dry pot is also a perfect place to feast on scallion pancakes, vegetable dumplings, and dan dan noodles, too. Lunar New Year specials include dragon prawns, málà peppercorn fish and tofu soup, and shredded pork ancd chives. And from Jan. 30 to Feb. 12, they’re also serving up three special cocktails for the Lunar New Year, including a Dragon Dance, made with Tsingtao, rosemary aperol, grapefruit, and honey. All food and drink specials are available at all their locations throughout the city (East Village, Bryant Park, and Midtown East included).

On Feb. 8 they’re throwing a Year of the Dragon party in Greenpoint, in collaboration with Busboy, a restaurant-industry facing marketing agency. The party includes a two-hour open bar, a dry pot buffet, dumplings, dragon dancers, a DJ, and much more. Get your tickets ($88 per person) here.

Meaning “uncut gems” in Chinese, Púsù is dedicated to showcasing raw, natural vegetarian dishes in their purest, most delicious form. We’re here for the fried lotus root, tri-color cold noodles, and inventive cocktails. For Lunar New Year, definitely consider ordering the dried chile Beyond chicken, vegetable wontons in chile oil, and black truffle fried rice.

The burger is the boss over at Red Hook Tavern, but come Lunar New Year, it’ll have to share the spotlight with chef bun Cheam’s special all-day menu inspired by nostalgic Chinese classics of his childhood, like turnip cakes, fried prawns, and more. Book your tickets here. And don’t worry; the burger’s not going anywhere.

All four New York locations of Talea will be offering a special spicy lager, developed in collaboration with Fly By Jing, for the month of February, in commemoration of Lunar New year. The Weekender Sichuan Lager is a citrus brew that uses Fly By Jing’s Tribute peppers and combines it with tart calamansi. They’ll also have two menu specials: a Spicy Fly By Jing martini with Tribute pepper-infused vodka and Sichuan Gold chile oil and a Chengdu crunch wrap from Milu chef Connie Chung.

Queens

Let Canto- and Mando-pop provide the perfect sooundtrack for your Lunar New Year celebration at this Long Island speakeasy listening lounge. Along with your cocktails (we’re partial to The Most Familiar Stranger, made with basil-infused gin or the special Midnight Pretender with milk oolong-infused vodka), you should consider a platter of fried goodness (fish balls, chicken, green beans, and tofu) and radish cakes with XO seafood sauce.

Flushing’s go-to for dim sum, Asian Jewels embodies the quintessential dim sum experience: expansive dining room, round tables, lazy susans, and dim sum carts included.

Call (718) 359-8600 to make a reservation.

This is Queens hot pot by way of China, with a special focus on uber-spicy beef tallow broths. The sprawling menu of additions has something for everyone, from scallops to wintermelon. Pro tip: They’re also BYOB.

Those in the know travel near and far to this Sichuan spot — especially for its verdant scallion fried rice — but really everything on the menu here packs a punch, from the Chongqing-style chicken to the smoked tea duck. For New Year’s, consider getting the home-style fresh fish with minced pork.

Call (718) 939-7788 to make a reservation.

It’s a baijiu bar and Hunanese restaurant from the team behind Blue Willow and Ye’s Apothecary where you can enjoy grandma’s rice noodles and braised pork in a space stylized like your very chic aunt’s apartment: Think fringe lamps, brightly patterned wallpaper, and neon galore. Don’t sleep on the red coin tofu or truffled xialongbao.

If you haven’t yet been to this stalwart for Taiwanese food in New York, you owe it to yourself to go. Everyone’s favorite staples here include the crispy pork chop, fly heads (a garlic chive stir fry with fermented black beans), three cup chicken, and the stinky tofu, but might we also suggest the blood rice cake and oyster pancake, too? Whatever you order, you’re sure to be more than satisfied. Just note it’s cash only.

Walk-ins only.